The 28-year-old was sent off on a disastrous debut for the Serie A newcomers, but is coming back with a will to right that wrong
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When he was substituted at half-time of Besiktas' 0-0 draw with Antalyaspor in February 2023, Dele Alli had no idea it would be over two years before he set foot on a pitch again. A muscle tear ended his loan spell in Istanbul, after which he checked himself into rehab to curtail a sleeping pill addiction. Once he had recovered mentally, Dele tried but failed to return to fitness before the end of his Everton contract, which expired in the summer of 2024, leaving him as a free agent only a handful of years after being widely considered one of the game's most valuable young players.
After months of speculation, Como were confirmed as his next club following a short trial period just after Christmas. There was still work to do to shake off the inevitable rust, but after several weeks of training and conditioning, he was ready to play.
And then off he came again. Ten minutes into his debut, Dele was shown a red card with Como chasing the game away at AC Milan, dismissed after a VAR check for a supposedly reckless challenge on his good friend, Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
His one-match suspension is now over and he is in line to return – – when Como travel to rock-bottom Monza on Saturday. It can't go any worse than his last appearance, right?
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images SportNeeds to be 'naughty'
Dele has always played on the edge. As continually attested to by former manager Mauricio Pochettino, he needs a "devil on his shoulder".
"It's who he is. Dele Alli is Dele Alli because of how he is. Dele Alli is Dele Alli because he's a little bit naughty. It's his character, in a good way," the Argentine said midway through the 2016-17 season in which the midfielder registered 22 goals and 10 assists for Tottenham. "He's a brilliant boy. He has a brilliant brain, he's very smart. He is very sensitive, very intuitive because he comes from a difficult background. You can understand when you're with him, but he's a very nice person – off the pitch!"
Roughly 18 months later, Pochettino claimed Dele needed to feel a sense of occasion to raise his game accordingly: "Training sessions sometimes, if you do finishing without opposition, we say, 'Come on Dele, you have the capacity to score'. But if you put opposition, he scores unbelievable goals… He needs to feel the competition. I think you can improve but you need to be born with this character and this mental strength. Then you need people to help you improve. If you don't have from your parents it’s so difficult, you can improve a little bit but it's not a thing you can buy in the market."
Granted, these anecdotes came nearly a decade ago now. Dele could get away with the punches and the middle fingers and the high challenges when he was a relative adolescent in an unforgiving footballing world, but as he approaches his thirties, he needs to find a way to channel that aggressive hunger into helping his team and hush that 'devil on his shoulder' when appropriate.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'Serious mistake'
What made Dele's red card at Milan so much worse was it killed off Como's chances of a comeback at 2-1 down. They had done well to claw their way back into the contest and improve their chances of taking another scalp on their first venture in the Italian top flight, only for the Rossoneri's one-man advantage late in the day to prove too significant a hurdle to overcome. Had Como been in a comfortable position during the game and cruising on autopilot, then Dele's dismissal may have proven a footnote, but it went down as the ultimate turning point.
Head coach Cesc Fabregas said post-match: "Milan have world-class players, they are a good team. [Dele] is a player who scores goals, at this moment he has to improve a lot and it is a serious mistake for someone of his experience. He left the team in difficulty, that is the negative thing of the evening."
That's quite a brutal assessment to take from a manager, particularly as the challenge went without divine punishment at first glance and, as Dele protested, only looked worse on replay when slowed down. But that's fine; that might be the fuel he needs to fire up again.
Seeing the funny side
Having been so honest and open over his struggles off the pitch, it would have been understandable for Dele's mood to sour leaving San Siro. Instead, he got up, dusted himself off and delved into making some self-deprecating fun of himself.
In an Instagram post after the Milan debacle, Dele revealed a WhatsApp exchange with Loftus-Cheek in which they both admitted to being confused by the VAR check at first, while the ex-Chelsea midfielder said he remained on the ground after the challenge because was out of breath rather than in pain from the foul.
Dele has gotten away with far worse than what he left on Loftus-Cheek, but he still could have succumbed to or absorbed a barrage of abuse had he tackled the aftermath in similarly careless rather than malicious fashion. The player and person of years gone by might have let the devil on his shoulder take over in a blazing rage. It's the sort of emotional maturity Fabregas would have been seeking in the aftermath.
Getty Images Sport'Fire still burns'
There was also recognition from Como's highest authority, club president Mirwan Suwarso, that Dele's short-lived comeback was a sign of promise and not damnation. Taking to Instagram himself, Suwarso said: "The fire still burns. After nearly two years, Dele Alli stepped back onto the battlefield. It takes courage to keep going, to fight through doubt, to silence the noise, and to return, not just to play, but to compete at the highest level once again.
"Some will talk about the red card. Let them. We saw something else. We saw hunger. We saw resilience. We saw flashes of brilliance. And those of us who watch him train every day know. This is only the beginning. The road back is never easy, but warriors don't quit. Keep going, Dele. Your best is yet to come. Semm Cumasch."
Cynics could construe this as higher-ups taking over (and they have), but there isn't a gun against Fabregas' head telling him to play Dele for the sake of it. After all, the Spaniard was reluctant to discuss him when the midfielder first touched down in the city. Como's image has benefitted from some marquee arrivals but it's far from a vanity project, and a budding young coach with such an idealistic vision wouldn't risk compromising his philosophy for the sake of shoehorning in a player they didn't believe in. Dele is there to play football.